Gary Neville criticised Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate for his lack of urgency towards the ball when the Reds lost 2-1 to Chelsea, and Arne Slot appears to have agreed to criticism from Sky Sports critics. However, Slot added that this is not the reason to replace the defender in the second half. The real-life Premier League champions were hoping for a draw until Esteva O’Willian’s final 96-minute goal was seen leaving Stamford Bridge in an empty handover.
However, Liverpool’s issues began long before Chelsea’s dramatic late winner. The Reds chased themselves within the first 14 minutes, making it 1-0 halftime due to a spectacular strike from Kayseko’s Moises. Slot made one change in a break and brought Florian Wiltz to Connor Bradley before being replaced for just 10 minutes in the second half. One of these changes was that Konate was replaced by Curtis Jones, resulting in Ryan Gravenberch being buried as emergency center back.
Neville felt that Slot was working on a struggle with build play from behind Liverpool as he was looking for an equalizer against Chelsea. He accused Conate of lack of urgency, and the former Manchester United player said like a joint association: “When you see Conate watching the ball at the start of the second half, he’s just walking.
“It’s making me annoyed and it’s honestly bothering me, he’s obviously an annoying slot as he decides to get a better guy with the ball in the back.
“That’s strange from Conate. I don’t know what he was trying to do, so I could see it coming just like he intervened.
However, Slot revealed that his decision to take off Konate was in fact due to knocking. He said, “I don’t know if it’s a major injury or not, but I know he limped. And I asked him and said, “I feel a bit of my quad.”
“But for me, all the alarm bells go off, because in another sprint, I don’t know if it will work, so that was already an alternative I had in mind a bit later.
“So it might be okay, he left early enough, but it was clear he had to take off him because he was limping.”
Slot’s tactical changes had almost immediate effect, with Liverpool discovering their tempo and establishing bases in the match. Cody Gappo was equal after just seven minutes of the double replacement, and his efforts seemed ready to score points for visitors.
Still, like Selhurst Park, Liverpool fell apart late. Slot responded: “Last season we lost to Chelsea as well. Stamford Bridge is always difficult. We were very close to the outcome. As I said at Galata Salei, we got the penalty.
“After we scored 1-1, it went our way and I think I was waiting for a second score. The decision could be better and the last 10-15 minutes were end-to-end.
“We arrived at an 18-yard box with (Andy) Robertson. We couldn’t control the ball, but it’s a subtle margin as far as I’m here. Last week, the finer margins were good for us, just like in the two tough games this week.”
Liverpool headed for an international break, sitting second at the Premier League table, chasing new coach Arsenal by one point. The next fixture for the Reds after the break will welcome Manchester United to Anfield on Sunday, October 19th.
